If you have an attribute that needs to be saved to the database as an
object, and retrieved as the same object, then specify the name of that
attribute using this method and it will be handled automatically. The
serialization is done through YAML. If class_name is
specified, the serialized object must be of that class on retrieval or SerializationTypeMismatch
will be raised.

Parameters

attr_name - The field name that should be serialized.

class_name
- Optional, class name that the object type should be equal to.

Example

# File activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb, line 557def serialize(attr_name,class_name=Object)coder=if[:load,:dump].all?{|x|class_name.respond_to?(x)}class_nameelseCoders::YAMLColumn.new(class_name)end# merge new serialized attribute and create new hash to ensure that each class in inheritance hierarchy# has its own hash of own serialized attributesself.serialized_attributes=serialized_attributes.merge(attr_name.to_s=>coder)end